The gentlest man I had ever met and he was all mine. I was at rock bottom until he came along. He rescued me, saved me and my friend from the monsters. Kevin was my friend throughout most of secondary school. When I first started in year 7 with everybody else, nobody wanted to come near me. They convinced themselves that I was the weird smart kid with no purpose in life. Why? Because my mum slept with one of my previous teachers back in England, and when I moved to Seoul, the scandal travelled with me. On top of that, I was the foreign kid and no-one likes the foreign kid.

I was on my own for the first year of secondary school and had developed severe depression. I had cut myself off from my classmates and both my parents. I didn’t see my dad often, as he was working in Japan. But in the letters I sent him, I lied my off, feeding him stories of made-up friends. I didn’t need to worry about my mum telling him the truth, as they refused to talk to each other. My mum on the other hand, had given up trying to get through to me.

Then at the start of year 8, a new student came from America. He was a feminine boy of Korean descent called Woo Sunghyun, but he told everybody to call him Kevin. I was the only one who did. Our classmates called him ‘’ instead. For the first couple of weeks, I didn’t actually speak to him. I had closed myself off from absolutely everyone. But one unlucky lunch break changed all of that.

A group of the girls in my class, who called themselves the ‘Elites’, caught me after class and dragged me into one of the empty classrooms, where another group of them were struggling to keep Kevin still. We caught eye-contact for a second, sad eyes meeting sad eyes. We both stopped struggling as buckets of freezing water were dumped on us. The girls ran away, giggling, leaving Kevin and I rooted in place, heads down, soaked through and with puddles of water at our feet.

“You too, huh?” I heard him mumble.

“Yeah…” I sighed. “You get used to it after a while.”

I made a move to leave, but Kevin grabbed my hand. “Wait! Please, be my friend.”

I stared at him like a deer caught in headlights. No-one had ever asked that of me before. All the sadness I had built up escaped in a sudden overflow of tears. Kevin pulled me against his wet chest, attempting to offer comfort.

“It’s okay now. Neither of us needs to be alone anymore.”

---수현---

For the next couple of years we stayed by each other’s side. We did school projects together and suffered through the bullying together. Water attacks were a regular occurrence every month. It was only after our 26^thwater attack that the school decided to do something. As I refused to speak up in school, I didn’t tell on any of the ‘Elites’ and Kevin just did whatever I did or didn’t do.

One of the teachers escorted us to the Head Master’s office after we had been given a change of clothes. The uniform I had been given was a little short, so I was constantly tugging the skirt down. The room was relatively small with a simple magnolia colour scheme and a lot of mahogany furniture. The Head himself was a small balding man who always wore a blue tie. The lines on his forehead gave him a permanent frown and his nose was elongated like a witch’s.

“It’s time we sorted you two out. I want you to meet someone I know. He’s not much older than yourselves and you’ll find him in the dance studios in town. He’ll be practicing with a Mr Lee and they are both expecting you, so go.” With that, he ushered us out of his office.

Our form teacher drove us to the dance studio, and the whole journey, Kevin and I sat in the backseat with towels on our heads, trying to dry our hair.

“I’d like to see you with a smile on your face,” my teacher told me as she pulled up outside the run down building. “That first day of year 7 was the only time I saw you smile. You too Kevin-ssi, you haven’t smiled since I first met you either. I really hope this guy can help you both.”

Wordlessly, we got out the car and pushed through the battered wooden door. Following our ears, Kevin and I walked down the dimly lit, narrow corridor. There were no windows, just a dark blue wall and a single, flickering light bulb. We carried on walking to the end of the corridor, where we stopped outside a white door, that actually looked relatively new, compared with the rest of the building. Kevin shyly knocked on the door, only to be greeted with a loud “come in.”

We hesitantly stepped inside, where two young men were dancing to the loud music. Both were extremely sweaty, but the darker haired male had more energy in his movements than the lighter haired. They soon both stopped and the lighter haired male came to greet us. He had gentle features: soft hazelnut eyes; pale, full lips and chocolate brown hair with chestnut highlights on the top layer. As he smiled at us, his cheeks puffed out like a hamster. I quickly turned my attention away from his face, in case I felt the urge to smile back. In all honesty, I had forgotten how to smile. My eyes wandered, falling upon his muscular arms that were on display and the defined pecks he was hiding under his black wife-beater.

“Hi, I’m Soohyun, Shin Soohyun. You two are?”

I chanced a glance at his face again, to see him still smiling widely, and something about that frightened me. I stepped closer to Kevin, who could sense that I was scared, so he clasped his hand round mine. I didn’t like close contact with people, not even Kevin, and I had told him that before, so his action surprised me and even scared me a little.

“Wh-what are you doing?”

“Sorry… I’m just trying to help.”

Soohyun’s smile dimmed down slightly. “I’m assuming you guys have names…”

“I’m Kevin, she’s…” I sent Kevin a glare, forcing him to be quiet.

“I don’t have one anymore.”

Soohyun’s eyes sparkled with sympathy. “Everyone has a name. What does Kevin call you?”

“He says ‘yah’ or ‘chingu’. My name was taken away from me ages ago.”

“Well, what can I call you?” he persisted. “We’re going to be seeing a lot of each other, so you need a name.”

“, , pig, lesbian… Take your pick,” I answered, trying to sound indifferent, but my voice was laced with so much anger.

“Those aren’t names; they’re insults you don’t deserve.” He sighed for a minute before continuing. “How about I pick out a new name for you; something nice… What about Cherri?”

“Why Cherri?”

“It reminds me of cherry blossom, which is beautiful, like you.”

I never blushed as much as I did in that moment. I was conscious of my face turning beetroot red as well as two other things: Soohyun’s unnamed friend had stopped his dancing to listen to our conversation. He started walking over to join us. The other thing was that Kevin’s hand had found my shoulder and was squeezing it gently.

“S-Soohyun-ssi…” I choked through a torrent tears.

“Please, call me oppa.” He sent me another bright smile that radiated kindness. My tears flowed freely and I felt myself growing weak, so I sank to my knees, curled up in a tight ball and cried my heart out, adding in the odd scream here and there. I had been broken for so long, and then this boy showed up who I’d never met before and started fixing me. It was all too sudden, that I had a hard time processing it all. I was barely able to register that someone had picked me up and placed me on a small sofa at the opposite end of the room. It was a few hours before I calmed down, but Soohyun, Kevin and the stranger stayed with me the whole time.

Soohyun was my hair softly when I finally regained my sanity. “Are you feeling better now?”

“Yes, thank you.”

I sat up and watched as all of them, including Kevin smiled at me. They all had such beautiful smiles…

“It’s my pleasure. It’s what I’m here for.”

“But why?” Kevin asked timidly. “Why did the Head call you? Who are you to him?”

“I’m an ex-student who went through secondary school with one friend and lots of enemies. The bullies picked on me because my dream was to sing and they all laughed in my face when I did. I lost my confidence. Then I found Kiseop,” he pointed to his nameless friend, “who wanted to become a dancer, so we teamed up and formed a strong friendship. Is that what you two have got?”

“Sort of,” Kevin answered. “We first met in a classroom at lunch. Some girls had forced us in there and poured water all over us. It happens to us every month now. It happened today.”

I suddenly felt a tingling sensation in my nose, and before I could warn anyone, I sneezed very loudly.

“You’ve probably caught a cold,” Kiseop said as he placed a hand on my forehead. “You’re a little warm, why don’t we take you home?”

“I’d rather stay here,” I muttered.

“Won’t your parents worry?” Soohyun asked.

I shook my head. “Mum doesn’t care anymore and Dad’s in Japan. I normally stay at Kevin’s anyway.”

“Alright, you can stay here a bit longer. I’ll get you some water and something to cool you down a bit.”

Soohyun came back a few minutes later with an ice-pack wrapped in a towel and a bottle of water. He passed me the water and held the ice-pack against my forehead. I shivered as soon as it came into contact with my skin.

“It’s s-so c-cold!”

“Well, it’s been in the freezer, what do you expect?”

---수현---

After a couple of hours, Kevin had to return home, leaving me with Soohyun and Kiseop. They had both been trying to take good care of me, which I was thankful for.

“You should get some sleep. You don’t mind sharing with a couple of guys, do you?” Soohyun asked. I shook my head, but then my eyes darted around the room, searching for Kiseop, who was laying out a large mattress in the far corner of the room. “We actually live here. The guy who owns this place is my uncle, so he doesn’t mind, as long as we don’t make a mess.”

“O-oh,” I coughed.

Soohyun picked me up in his muscled arms and carried me over to the king-sized mattress. He placed me in the middle and then laid down beside me. Without realising, I nuzzled into his chest, seeking warmth. Kiseop turned the lights off and settled down the other side of me, pulling a duvet over all three of us.

“Goodnight,” Kiseop whispered.

“G-Goodnight…” I mumbled in return as my eyelids grew heavy and eventually closed.

---수현---

The following (late) morning, I woke up feeling refreshed and decisively calm. I almost smiled as I lifted my head up from Soohyun’s chest. Kiseop was heating up some food in a microwave nearby, while Soohyun was staring at the ceiling, deep in thought.

“Ah! You’re awake!” he exclaimed in a surprised tone.

“Good morning oppa. Thank you for taking care of me last night.” My voice had lost some of the monotone that it usually carried and sounded somewhere close to happy.

“You sound much better this morning. Would you like some fried kimchi for breakfast? Kiseop’s just heating it up.” I sat up slowly and nodded my head. Soohyun passed me a pair of chopsticks as Kiseop brought the food across.

“Eat up,” the dark haired male commanded as he passed me a bowl of kimchi. I ate the whole bowl-full, even though I was much slower than the other two and offered to help Kiseop clean up, but he declined my help.

“What do you want to do today? It’s Saturday, so you haven’t got school.”

I nervously fidgeted with my fingers in my lap. “I don’t know,” I mumbled in a low voice.

“Okay, why don’t we call Kevin then and ask him?” He held his hand out towards me, which I surprisingly didn’t feel the need to cower back from. “Can I borrow your phone?”

I pulled said item from my pocket and carefully put it in his outstretched hand. I didn’t bother to listen to his conversation, instead I started trying to remember the last time I went out and did something fun. I realised that it was in fact four years previously, before I started in year 7. My dad took me out to a Japanese theme park while I was staying in Tokyo with him for a month. We went on all the rides I wanted to, which were the tame ones with small cues. I wasn’t a big fan of the rollercoasters that went so high up and upside down. We ended with the Ferris Wheel, which had been such a pleasant ride. We could see all of Tokyo from the top, which was mesmerising.

“Kevin’s meeting us here in half an hour, okay?”

“I want to go on a Ferris Wheel,” I blurted out. Soohyun looked surprised at first, but then lit up in a wide grin.

“Okay, I’ll make sure we do that later!”

“Thank you. Umm, are there showers in this building?”

“Yeah, Kiseop will show you in a minute. You can borrow my towels and soap if you’d like. Kevin said he’ll bring a change of clothes for you when he arrives.”

“Thank you.”

Kiseop led me upstairs into a small bathroom, where there were three open showers. I found Soohyun’s towels and soap placed on one of the sinks opposite, so I picked up the latter item and placed it on a small dish on the wall underneath the middle shower.

“I’ll leave you to it. Call if you need anything!”

---수현---

After I had a quick shower and ended up smelling sweet like Soohyun, I changed back into my clothes and greeted Soohyun, Kiseop and Kevin downstairs. My blonde-haired friend passed me a pair of indigo, flared jeans and a pale blue tank top, which I changed into in the bathroom. I tied my ridiculously long hair up in a pony tail and put my red converse on, before heading out again.

“You ready to go?” Soohyun asked, to which I nodded. “Good. Let’s go to the fair!”

Kevin lit up in an excited smile. This was one of the few times I’d seen him smile. I wanted him to smile more often than he did, but he wouldn’t unless I smiled first. And that never happened.

“Yah, chingu!” he called out to me. “Let’s have fun today, arrasso?”

“Arrasso, Kevin.”

“Cherri-ah!” Kiseop called. “Kevin’s got a nice smile, so you’ve probably got a nice smile too. Can I see it?”

“I’ve forgotten how to smile, Kiseop-ssi.”

“Call me oppa too, okay? And you can’t forget how to smile. Smiling comes from deep inside.” He laid a hand over his chest, pointing to his heart. I began to tear up again at his kind words. He stepped closer and handed me a tissue. “Please don’t cry. Pretty girls shouldn’t cry.”

“He’s right,” Soohyun spoke softly from beside me. “Pretty girls like yourself should be happy, not sad.”

“I am happy…I think. I’ve never felt this wanted before. Not even Kevin made me feel this way.”

Soohyun held his hand out to me, which I cautiously took. “Then try to smile for us and be happy.”

---수현---

When we arrived at the fairground, I was completely overwhelmed by what I saw. There was so much to do! In the middle, there was an ice-rink, which was surrounded by multiple stalls. Some were games stalls and others were food stalls, similar to the street vendors that were found all over Seoul. Towards the back of the large field where this was all taking place, there was a large Ferris Wheel next to a bouncy castle and a teacups ride.

“Where do you guys want to go first?”

“Ice rink!” Kevin yelled. “I haven’t been skating since I was in America…” his voice grew quiet, “with Eli.”

“Kevin-ah, who’s Eli?” Kiseop asked. He had this almost sad look in his eyes, which I couldn’t really understand.

“He was my boyfriend, but then I had to move away. He said we’d keep in touch, but he never even texted me.”

“Oh, I’m sorry Kevin. We can’t replace Eli, but as your new friends, we’ll take you out to have fun!”

Soohyun hired skates out for all of us, and we cautiously stepped onto the ice. I’d never been skating before, so Soohyun offered to help me and teach me to skate. As we were going round the edge of the ice rink, laughter was ringing in my ears. I could see all the stares and all the fingers pointing at me, laughing. Kevin, who was skating around with Kiseop stopped as soon as the laughter erupted. He looked down sadly before skating off the rink. I wanted to do the same.

“Can we go now?”

“Wae?” Soohyun cried. “We’re just getting started!”

“They’re all laughing at me. I don’t like it,” I mumbled, while looking at my feet.

“Just ignore it and skate with me.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pair of black, fluffy earmuffs. “Put these on, so you won’t have to hear it.”

I took the earmuffs from him and put them on, effectively closing off any sound. Soohyun took my hand and led me skating again. After a while, I started to pick up his techniques, so he let me skate around the rink on my own. As I couldn’t hear anything and my eyes were focused on my feet, it was a total shock when six figures ploughed into me, knocking me to the ground. The girls who knocked me over, quickly skated off again, cackling to themselves. I pulled the earmuffs off just as Soohyun stopped in front of me and lifted me up. I whispered a few ‘ows’ and ‘oohs’ as my back, right wrist and right ankle was sore from the fall.

“Are you okay?”

“My back hurts…” I muttered.

“Come on, let’s go find Kiseop and Kevin.”

Soohyun glided towards the exit, tugging me along with him, throwing dirty looks at the girls who pushed me as we passed them. He helped me out of my skates and supported me as we limped towards the dokkboki stall, where Kiseop and Kevin were.

“Omo, what happened?” Kiseop exclaimed.

“Some girls from my school were there and they knocked me over.”

“Are you okay, chingu?” Kevin asked. His eyes were red and swollen, indicating that he’d been crying.

“Yeah, I’m alright. Why are you crying Kevin?”

“Those girls were laughing at us… I don’t like it when they laugh.”

At that moment, I did something I never thought I’d do. I pulled Kevin into a hug. He gasped at the sudden contact, as did Soohyun and Kiseop. For once, I didn’t even feel the need to cry. Whatever it was that Soohyun (and Kiseop) were doing to me, it was definitely making an impact.

“Chingu… Y-you hugged me! You hugged me!”

“Yeah, I guess I did.”

Soohyun placed his hand on my shoulder lightly. “Shall we get something to eat? I saw Kevin and Kiseop were eying up the dokkboki stall.”

“Sure. That sounds like fun.”

---수현---

We spent hours wandering around the fair, going on different rides, buying food from the stalls and playing games. Soohyun played a shooting game at one of them and he won a giant white teddy bear for me. A small smile spread across my face when he presented it to me.

“Omo! You’re so pretty when you smile!” He removed some of the strands of hair that were covering my face. “You should smile more often. It will make you feel better!”

We walked around some more until we found Kiseop and Kevin at the ‘Hook A Duck’ stall. Kiseop managed to win the large blue cuddly fish, which he gave to Kevin, who smiled brightly.

“Gomawo~!” Kevin exclaimed as he held the fish close to his chest. Kiseop took hold of his hand and walked with us towards the back of the field.

“Last ride for the night,” Soohyun announced. “Time to go on the Ferris Wheel!”

There weren’t very many people left, so there wasn’t a cue for the Ferris Wheel. We all got onto one of the cars and waited for the ride to start. I was sat next to Soohyun, with Kevin and Kiseop sat opposite us. Kevin rested his head on Kiseop’s shoulder and closed his eyes in deep thought.

“This has been a great day,” he mumbled tiredly. Thirty seconds later and his light snoring filled the air. Kiseop smiled down at him affectionately and Kevin’s hair out of his face.

I leaned back against the glass wall of the car and closed my eyes as well. My mind drifted back to the time my dad took me on the Ferris Wheel in Tokyo. I was sat in his lap as we stared out at Tokyo city.

“Look! Isn’t it beautiful sweetheart?” he asked as he bounced me on his knee gently.

“It’s gorgeous appa! I wish I could spend more time with you appa, I had so much fun today!”

“I know baby girl, appa’s sorry he can’t see you very often, but you know something?” I shook my head and gave him my full attention. “Appa loves you very much and thinks about you every day, and that’s never going to change.” He kissed my forehead and rocked me in his arms gently until I fell asleep.

Just recalling the memory brought me to tears. Soohyun gently grazed his thumbs over my cheeks, wiping away the fresh trails. He pulled me onto his lap and placed his lips to the side of my head. I was rendered speechless by his simple actions. He cradled me gently and whispered sweet words to me.

“It’s okay now. You don’t need to be afraid or sad anymore. I’ll take all of that away.”

I must’ve fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew, we were back in the dance studio. Soohyun and Kiseop had somehow managed to squeeze both Kevin and I between them.

“Soohyun-oppa?”

“Hmm?” he mumbled tiredly.

“Thank you.” I kissed his cheek and smiled at him. It was a real smile, the first one in four years. He smiled back affectionately and tucked some of my hair behind my ear.

“I was right. You have a beautiful smile.”

---수현---

After that, I permanently moved in with Kiseop and Soohyun. Kevin often slept over and was there almost every single day, but he stayed at home with his parents. Within two months of our first meeting, Kevin announced that he and Kiseop were a couple. To be honest, Soohyun could see it coming from a mile off, but we still pretended to be shocked and surprised. I still went to school with Kevin every day, and we were both much happy. The teachers were also noticeably pleased with how happy Kevin and I were. To avoid getting ambushed at lunch times, we sat in the classroom with the teacher and we would talk about random things. Sometimes, Kiseop or Soohyun would ring and we would be on the phone to them for the whole lunch break.

After school and at weekends, Kiseop and I would coach Soohyun and Kevin in dancing, and they would coach us in singing. Kiseop had discovered my natural dancing talent once when I was messing around with Kevin after school, and Soohyun had discovered Kevin’s angelic voice when we were all singing along to an F.T. Island song on the radio. We planned to eventually audition at an entertainment company.

“Ani… Like this oppa!” I tried to teach him the choreography to ‘Sorry Sorry’ for the hundredth time, but he couldn’t pick it up. His moves were similar to those of Donghae.

“Aish! This is why I sing! I’m no good at it!” he pouted cutely. He crossed his arms and sat on the floor with his legs folded. I looked at the sulky Soohyun and tried to stifle my giggles.

“Oh oppa! You can’t give up now, it’s almost there! All you need to do is perfect the chorus, and then it’s almost exactly like Eunhyuk!”

“I’m not that good. Not like you.”

I extended a hand out to him which he took and hauled himself up with. He grabbed hold of my other hand and stood very close to me.

“Oppa, you’re only as good as you believe yourself to be. So have a little faith. I did. I had faith in you.”

“Cherri-ah~, I have faith in you too.” He closed the space between us and connected our lips. It was soft and gentle, yet I could feel sparks flying in my brain at the feeling. The world seemed to dissipate into a dream, where the only beings were Soohyun and I. He didn’t try to deepen the kiss because it was already perfect.

“Well, it’s about time too!” Kiseop’s loud voice distracted us and we broke apart. He was holding hands with a blushing Kevin, standing in the doorway. He smiled at us widely, whilst Kevin just sent us a smaller, nervous smile.

“I was wondering how long it would take you too to cotton on,” Kiseop huffed as he dragged Kevin behind him to meet us in the middle of the room.

“You know I could say the same about you and Kevin. It took you longer than necessary to make your move.”

Kiseop looked at Soohyun blankly for a second, before a crimson blush coated his cheeks. “Yah! Just…go make out somewhere else!”

“Why should we? You don’t!”

I pulled the squabbling Soohyun away from his friend and partner in crime. We sat down on the worn sofa in the far corner of the room. I snuggled against Soohyun’s chest as he laced our fingers together.

“I probably should have told you this sooner… Saranghae.”

“Saranghae oppa.”